Regular readers of this eclectic gathering of quirk will know Society Diary is a huge fan of a feline.
Indeed, last time out Diary was promoting the National Cat Awards. On the basis that you can’t have too many moggy-related morsels of news, Diary is delighted to highlight today as an important day.
Music lovers may recall Al Stewart’s 1976 smash hit (31 in the UK hit parade, pop pickers, but a heady eight in the US) Year of the Cat, but its working title was actually International Cat Day. OK, that might not be true.
Wikipedia suggests it was genuinely going to be called Foot of the Stage and was about comedian Tony Hancock, but the record company rejected it as it feared it wouldn’t resonate with American audiences.
Anyway, today, global cat welfare charity, International Cat Care (iCatCare), is celebrating being “cat friendly every day” for #InternationalCatDay.
Diary is unclear whether this is specifically aimed at international cats. Ones that arrogantly and aloofly pad around the world hoping to be fed. For Diary’s own cat, a trip to next door’s garden to wind their dogs up once a week is the extent of its global ambitions.
iCatCare is a pioneering cat welfare charity that advances the health and welfare of cats around the world, providing expert feline information, education, resources and guidance to cat owners, veterinary professionals and those who work and volunteer with cats.
As such, International Cat Day is an opportunity to highlight important feline-focused topics and raise awareness of cats as a species. And Diary is here to absolutely support and promote this – having just remembered to top up Diary Felix’s cat biscuits.
Talking of food, and given the opportunity Diary would probably talk about very little else, Alexandra Rose Charity, in partnership with Tower Hamlets Council and the Bromley By Bow Centre, has revealed compelling new data showing the “lifesaving” impact of its innovative Fruit & Veg on Prescription project.
Diary well remembers being told to eat your greens by Ole Mama Diary, on the grounds of health (even though most of the goodness in a portion of spinach, for example, had probably been left in the water after boiling for 20 minutes).
So, it is great to see that new data shows a 15% reduction in self-reported GP visits, offering real-world evidence for how food-based interventions can help ease pressure on primary care and support the NHS shift toward prevention-focused, community-delivered care.
And Diary is more than happy to contribute by offering a glut of courgettes from its own allotment to any similar schemes.
Food also features in Diary’s final offering this time out. It is fair to say that we all loved Donald Trump’s recent presidential trip/taxpayer-funded golf holiday to the UK, specifically Scotland.
However, Trump’s visit also led to a drain on charitable funds. Charity the Rapid Relief Team (RRT) completed its largest-ever operation, providing more than 44,000 free hot meals and welfare packs to Police Scotland officers deployed across the country during Trump’s sojourn.
The Donald’s presence required the large-scale mobilisation of over 6,000 officers to ensure public safety and security in light of the high-level meetings, as well as public demonstrations.
Over the course of 10 days, over 700 volunteers from RRT worked together with Police Scotland and mobilised at six different locations across Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire, Edinburgh and Glasgow to cook and serve 18,693 hot meals and refreshments to officers on the job.
Any suggestion that the meals were entirely made up of doughnuts has not been verified.
Diary knows it isn’t the worst consequence of Trump’s years in power, but it can’t help feeling that these resources would have been far better served not sustaining the energy levels of the extraordinary numbers of coppers required for a self-serving vanity and business trip.
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